Syndication of "Hard Problems" on American Public Television

与体育、拼写、甚至艺术不同，公众对美国最有数学天赋的高中生是通过数学竞赛发现和培养的过程知之甚少。尽管每年有数百万学生参加数学考试，数十万学生参加数学竞赛，但公众对进入最困难的数学竞赛所需的激情、承诺、决心、天赋、父母的参与和指导知之甚少。MAA纪录片《Hard Problems：The Road to the World's Toughest Math Contest》讲述了六名高中生代表美国参加2006年在斯洛文尼亚卢布尔雅那举行的国际数学奥林匹克竞赛的故事。在美国国家科学基金会的资助下，MAA将通过美国公共电视台的辛迪加向公众提供这部电影。观众会发现，在IMO团队中代表美国的杰出年轻人才华横溢，全面发展，是我们国家的杰出大使。看完这部电影后，人们可以很容易地想象他们在学术/研究社区、劳动力中占据一席之地时，他们会成为团队领导者，甚至像许多过去的参与者一样，创办自己的成功公司。

Unlike sports, or spelling, or even the arts, the general public has little awareness of the process whereby the most mathematically talented high school students in the United States are discovered and nurtured through math competitions. Although millions of students each year take mathematics exams and hundreds of thousands enter math competitions, the public has little understanding of the passion, commitment, determination, talent, parental involvement and coaching it takes to advance to the most difficult math competitions. The MAA documentary Hard Problems: The Road to the World's Toughest Math Contest tells the stories of the six high school students who represented the United States in the 2006 International Mathematical Olympiad (IMO) Competition in Ljubljana, Slovenia. With funding from the National Science Foundation, the MAA will make the film available to the public through syndication by American Public Television. Viewers will discover that the exceptional young people who represent the U.S. at the IMO team are talented and well-rounded, and are outstanding ambassadors for our country. After watching this film, one can easily envision them as being team leaders when they take their place in the academic/research community, in the work force, and even starting their own successful companies, as many past participants have.